Officials: Warehouse fire could cost county $1.5M

Officials: Warehouse fire could cost county $1.5M

Nov. 08, 2017

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — County officials say the cost of the response to a warehouse fire in West Virginia is already more than $1 million.

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel quotes Wood County Commission president Blair Couch in a Tuesday report as saying that bills received from agencies and groups "would put the cost at over $1.5 million."

Couch says the council is trying to get all the bills together so that it can present one billing to the state for reimbursement. The county is also looking to the property owner to cover expenses relating to the fire.

The blaze began on Oct. 21 in the 420,000-square-foot (39,000-square-meter) property owned by Columbia, Maryland-based Intercontinental Export Import Inc., which says it buys and sells an array of recycled plastics worldwide.